UMAINE TODAY • April 21, 2021
The way leaves reflect light can illuminate the evolutionary history of seed plants, according to an international team of scientists led by a University of Maine researcher. Plant reflectance spectra, or the light profile leaves reflect across different wavelengths, capture the change and diversification of seed plants as a result of evolution, according to Dudu Meireles, UMaine assistant professor of plant evolution and systematics. Meireles and colleagues from the United States, Canada, Switzerland and England explored how spectra have evolved and diversified over the last 350 million years of plant evolution. They found that by measuring the light spectrum reflected by a leaf, they can identify the plant, learn about its chemistry and evolution, and pinpoint its place in the tree of life.